I'm no friend of Tony Blair's and I consider the Middle East policies of the United States and the UK fatal.

Every time you finish a book, you have a terrible feeling that there's just never going to be another one. But fortunately, so far, the next one has always shown up.

You don't that often see writers being sought out when there are matters of great moment to discuss. And I think that's a loss.

My heart broke open and history fell in.

The Muslim population in India is, largely speaking, not radicalised. From the beginning, they were always very secular-minded.

You can't assume if you do something contentious that people will be on your side. The moment violence enters the story, the story changes. Then the question is, "How do you face up to violence?" And then you have to have a no-compromise position. And this is quite simply a lesson we learn in the school playground.

It seems to me it's perfectly possible to vehemently disagree with a piece of work and to say that it's offensive and insulting and so on and so on. And you're absolutely entitled to do that and to speak back, if you like, against that piece of speech with all the vehemence at your disposal. I mean, that's legitimate. Even other things. People have a right to demonstrate.